The invention relates to popular games and more especially those which consist in taking bets, generally at retail betting outlets, on a horse race, a football match, a lotto draw and other events.
To record the players"" bets, each retailer is provided with a game recording terminal linked to a distant central unit which manages the entire taking of bets made with all the terminals which form a game network.
In order to place a bet, the player, for instance at a horse race, ticks a game grid, indicating his forecast for the placing of the horses. The ticked grid is read by a game recording terminal and the central unit allocates an identification number to this record of a bet. The player""s bet and his identification number are then printed by the terminal on a receipt given to the player.
In the case where a player""s bet wins, he must present his receipt to one of the retailers of the game network. The validity of the receipt is then checked by the retailer""s game recording terminal, linked to the central unit, before the winnings are paid to the player.
Such a check aims especially at avoiding paying winnings on the presentation of a forged receipt, but does not have any dissuasive effect aimed at stopping an attempt to defraud.
Besides, in spite of the good faith of the player, his receipt can bear false or illegible information, due to problems with the printer (electrical, mechanical or programming), with the printing paper (more often than not, thermal), or with transmission, in the game recording terminal which has printed the receipt.
In short, the security of the systems of prior art for recording games is not guaranteed.
The invention aims at making the game recording terminals more secure.
To this end, the subject matter of the invention is a game recording terminal comprising:
means for entering bets;
means for printing information on a betting receipt; and
means for checking the validity of a receipt received;
characterised by the fact that the terminal comprises:
means for checking that the printed receipts conform with the information to be printed on them: and
means for invalidating receipts, arranged to be activated under the command of the checking means.
It will observed that the invalidation means can be activated by the conformity checking means as well as by the means for checking the validity.
Thanks to the invention, a receipt for a winning bet is automatically invalidated, after validation, by the terminal. Besides, the terminal self-checks the information which it prints on each receipt in order to render invalid the erroneous receipts. The terminal of the invention thus contributes to further safeguarding the bet entries.
Advantageously, the means for checking the validity and the means for checking the conformity comprise common means of image analysis.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the invalidation means include printing means.
The invalidation of a receipt is thus carried out by simple marking of the word xe2x80x9cinvalidxe2x80x9d for instance.
Advantageously, the printing means intended for printing the betting receipts and the printing means intended for invalidating the receipts are distinct.
Again, preferably, the means of entering bets comprise means of image analysis common to the checking means.
Thus, in this last case, the means of image analysis are designed to analyse, or read, not only the information carried by the receipts, but also that of the betting supports, such as the game grids for instance.